Crafting Sweet Memories: The Candy Buffet Company with Marissa Mascaro

In this episode of Networking Success: Northside Notables, host Lisa Thomas sits down with Marissa Mascaro, owner of The Candy Buffet Company. With over 14 years in the business, Marissa has turned her passion for creating memorable candy experiences into a thriving, nationwide service, specialising in corporate events, weddings, and everything in between.

Marissa shares her journey from employee to business owner, revealing how she transformed The Candy Buffet Company by focusing on corporate clients and delivering Instagram-worthy, customisable candy buffets. From working on iconic installations like the Pink concert tours to unique donut walls for brands like Google, Marissa explains what it takes to bring a touch of sweetness to any event.

She also discusses her experience with BNI and offers practical advice for other business owners on testing new ideas, staying open to opportunities, and choosing the right people to work with.

🔗 Learn more about The Candy Buffet Company: https://thecandybuffetcompany.com.au

Listen now on your favourite platform:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com

Transcript

0:01

Hello, everyone. It's Lisa Thomas, Executive Director of BNI Melbourne North, and welcome to Network Success, North Side Notables. So in business, we go and we look at lots of celebrities or lots of serious entrepreneurial entrepreneurs. But the whole idea of this podcast is to celebrate our local talent and the people that we have in our local area and the successful business people and their stories. So today, I've got Marissa Mascaro with me from the Candy Buffet. And so, Marissa, would you like to share with us a little bit about your background? Yeah, sure. Good morning, Lisa. How are you? Good. Good. I own the Candy Buffet Company. It's a 14-year-old business. We're based in Tullamarine, and we do candy buffets, donut walls, and grazing stations. We're all over Australia, and very proud local business. We work with a lot of big business, but we're a little tiny micro business of our own. That sounds like a bit of fun, but how did you get into it? How did you get into this business? Yeah, I started working for the company 13 years ago. They were probably three months into their journey when I started working for them. I went for the interview as a stylist, as somebody who actually sets up the Candy Buffets, and they saw my resume. They saw that I was in events, and they actually asked me to join their team in-house and be their event manager. I did that for five or six years, and then I purchased the company About eight years ago. Oh, fantastic. How was that for you, going from an employee to suddenly owning the business? For people who know me, I think they know that when I do something, I put everything into it. It always felt like it was my business. I was in a very lucky position that the owners allowed me to run the business like it was my own. A lot of the times, they didn't work from the office, so I did have a lot of freedom to do what I wanted. When I bought the company, even now, eight years later, I still feel like I work there. It feels the same as what it did 13 years ago. What were you What were you doing prior to that? Were you still doing in the candy area, the events area? I worked for the Society of Automotive Engineers. I've been in automotive for a lot of my life, but I was the event manager there. Oh, okay. Yes. That's how I started. Oh, fantastic. What prestigious cars have you had an opportunity to have a drive? I've been really lucky in my life that I have been exposed to some really beautiful cars, none of my own. I know I've had a couple of really nice cars of my own, but I've driven everything from a McLaren to a Bentley, Ferraris. I've been in some pretty spectacular cars, which makes me very happy. Yes. Well, that sounds quite exciting, too. Tell us a little bit more about your business because it's an unusual business, and people would think, Oh, doing lolleys or that thing or donuts, how can that actually... Is that really a real business? Is it a real business. But I know that you're all over Australia. Talk to us a little bit about what you actually do. We market brands deliciously, and it's not as much the weddings and the birthdays and christenings that we focus on. 90% of the business is corporate. I think mentally, that's what changed the business when I started focusing on the clients that I really wanted being the corporates and having that as my emphasis, the business changed because of that. We got weddings and we got the christenings and birthdays, but more as a side because of all the corporate work that we were doing. It is one of those things where I have had to learn not to justify my business because it is a proper, legitimate business. I don't work from home. I I don't work out of my garage. I have employees all over Australia, and I'm really, really proud of what we've built. I think what I love is that we have worked with the biggest companies in the world, and being able to showcase that, that we're working with these companies day in, day out, I don't need to prove it anymore. The proof is on my Instagram page. It's in my gallery. It is a really hard one because we work with lolleys and donuts and rainbows and sunshine, but it's big business. Give us an example of what you might do for a corporate and how you help them get their brand out there. Sure. Okay. One that comes off to the top of my head right now is an email I received a couple of hours ago. Xero just booked us to do a donut wall for them. Each client is going to be very different. I thought they may have wanted It's their logo, but they're celebrating their 18th birthday. They want the number 18 on a donut wall. The way to think about it is that a donut wall is like pixels. The donuts actually create the pattern on the donut wall. On this one, it's really easy. They've shown us the colours that they'd like us to use, and we're creating the number 18. But then, for example, when we work with Google, we know automatically it's a white donut wall for the The beautiful basic background. Then the G, we form with the colours of the Google logo going around. It is really visually a Google donut wall. Okay. Well, that sounds really Great. Yeah. What's been the most exciting thing that you've done? I have, honestly, one of the best jobs I've ever heard of. A As well as getting to work with incredible clients, I get to attend some pretty awesome installations that we're a part of. For example, to come to mind, something I'm really proud of is in 2012, so a while ago, we were flown to Brisbane to be a part of Big Brother Australia. As somebody who always wanted to be a part of Big Brother, but never wanted to be on telly because I don't want to be on telly, but I always wanted to be a part of that experiment, the only option that I ever had was to work on Big Brother, and I got that opportunity. There's an episode where our Candy Buffet is featured in the Big Brother house, so that was excellent. I got to be a part of it. It was during live filming, and if you pause it at the right time, you can see me, but you can see the candy buffets there. And that was incredible. That was three days of just watching through the mirrors of the house, and it was incredible. So is it a real house? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a real house. And it's just covered with windows, and you can literally see everything. You just walk around the outside of the house. It's random, but Also, we have been so lucky. No, I don't like the word lucky. We have been able to work with Live Nation on multiple, multiple events, but the absolute ultimate was working with them on the Pink concerts. All right. We've done that three times now, so every time Pink has toured, I think it's 2012, 2018, and this year, we've done every night of the We're doing a Pink tour in VIP rooms, so actually doing it for 200 people a night this year. That's been incredible. We literally, we tour with Pink, and we go around Australia doing it for her. What does that look like? Do you Yeah, well, tell us what it looks like for people, because some people may not understand what you mean by an installation or that thing. I use words that I need to explain. Sorry. With a Candy Buffet, so this In particular, it was a candy buffet. We will look at the promotional material that pink is using for that tour. 2012, it was the Love Tour. I don't exactly remember what it was called, but that was It was black and red. It actually had nothing to do with the colour pink, but black and red. Everything was themed in the black and red. There was a lot of silver elements as well. What we do is we have a look at all the promotional material around the tour, and then we theme a candy buffet, a table filled with lolleys to the tour. This year, it was a carnival theme, so we actually just got to have so much fun. We got to really have a lot of fun with the theming of the Candy Buffet table. But wherever we can, we put pinks logo on things. So everything is branded, everything is marketed. I think that the best thing about what I do is that I always describe it as Instagramable moments. So you could be standing in a room and you've got your influences there. You've You've managed to get your influences to your event. But unless you give them content, you're just going to walk away with them having been there. But if you give them something to take photos of, something that includes your branding that they can take photos of, you're going to get it to all of their followers. You're going to have hundreds of thousands of people viewing your products, seeing your brand, and just being reminded of your brand just because of an influencer that they follow. Okay, fantastic. You're part of BNI, yes. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your experience with BNI? Yeah, thanks. It has changed me as a person. I'm still very introverted in the way that I am, but it has allowed me to step out of my shell and also understand my business in a way that I didn't understand it before. I'm being exposed to people that are bringing out the best of me that I didn't have exposure to before BNI. I think other than the money, because you're in business to make money, but with BNI, what I have really taken out of BNI is the growth, personally, that I've achieved. If somebody was interested in joining, what would be your advice? I would suggest Well, it's so hard for me to say this unbiasedly, honestly. I wish that I'd found BNI 12 years ago. I've been a member for two and a half years now. I wish that I'd found it earlier in my journey. It doesn't matter when you find BNI. If it feels right and if it fits, just explore it because it's worth it. To me, it's been worth it. I think it doesn't matter if you're 14 years into your business or 14 It finds you when it's right. That's what I believe. That's fantastic. You've obviously been in business for a while, and you're doing well within BNI, but what's your What would be some little tips or expert advice you would give to the other business owners that may be listening to this or watching us? Don't say no. Try everything. If an idea is presented to you, explore it. That's my motto. I don't like saying no, and I'll explore an option until it doesn't work. I think that if you come with the positive attitude of, Yep, I'm going to give everything a go. If it fits within my business model, if it's something that I'm interested in doing and it fits in my business model, give it a go. There's no harm in trying. We put things on our Shopify that we don't even necessarily intend to sell, but it's there just in case because it doesn't hurt to have something available for people. You don't know what's going to resonate with people. So test the market. Test the market, yeah. Test the market. It doesn't cost anything, really, to do that. Okay. It sounds like you've got a pretty good, a fun business. You get to do it all over Australia. You get to work with some pretty big companies as well as celebrities, and you obviously really love it. So thank you very much for coming on to the podcast today. My pleasure. And as a last question, we just like to ask What would be your business book or podcast that you would recommend to somebody to have a listen to? Okay. You can have a couple if you need to have a couple. Okay. One book changed my mentality, and that was Who's in your Room by Dr. Ivan Mazna. It is a BNI book. I read it regardless, and I highly recommend that book to people who want to change their perception of what happens to you when you allow people into your space. I think that it has really changed the way that I see things, and that made a huge impact. Everyone that I've recommended that book to has read it and has actually had really great things to say about it also. We'll just tell the listeners a little bit. The concept is what Dr. Ivan Meisner talks about is if you just had a one-way door, would you be a little bit more discerning of who you would let into your room, who you would interact with? Because once they come through-They can't go back out. They can't go back out again. Which is actually what happens in real life, because regardless if Somebody actually leaves your life, what their impact remains. I think that's the moral of it. Make sure that the people that you have in your space are there for the right reasons. Yeah. And your podcast? Or if you got another book? F1 with Maddie and Tommy. No, I don't know if that works. I really love Jay Shetty. I love listening to his podcasts. I think that's the two that I would suggest. Well, thank you very much for coming on to the show today. Thank you for inviting me.